5 Critical Go-to-Market Lessons from InfluxData’s Journey to 1,900 Enterprise Customers
Most open source companies never crack the code on monetization. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, InfluxData CEO Evan Kaplan revealed why: “You’re a phenomenal open source company if you could monetize 1% of your community.” With 1,900 paying customers and billions of data points processed daily, InfluxData’s journey offers crucial lessons for founders navigating the complex path from open source to enterprise success.
- Developer Experience Trumps All
The foundation of InfluxData’s growth wasn’t marketing or sales – it was making their product irresistible to developers. As Evan explains, “What Paul got right completely was that approach to the time series category by making it schema list, by building the capabilities directly in, by allowing it to scale horizontally… Just a bunch of stuff that made it really easy for developers to engage quickly, learn, install.”
This focus on reducing friction became their core competitive advantage. “The hurdle that you see with most databases, whether it’s traditional mysql or postgres, of coming over, having to get over a big wall just to use it, didn’t exist with it. It was very easy to start working with, and then it was pretty easy to stay working.”
- The Enterprise Sale Starts with Developers
Rather than pursuing top-down enterprise sales, InfluxData recognized that developer adoption drives enterprise deals. “For me, talking to a CIO is an exercise in vanity, because you don’t go to a CIO and say, hey, listen, you need a new time sharing,” Evan reveals. “You start with a developer, you win an architecture, and then you explain to a CIO or CTO why this is important, why it will scale with their business.”
- Make Hard Monetization Decisions Early
In 2016, InfluxData faced a crucial decision about their clustering feature. “We had planned on keeping the clustering and the high availability in the open source… But we were faced with kind of an existential threat as we couldn’t keep funding the company and building the database if we didn’t find a way to monetize.” Despite community backlash, moving clustering to their commercial offering proved essential for sustainability.
- Diversify Deployment Options
Rather than forcing customers into a single deployment model, InfluxData created multiple paths to revenue: “We offer the product, we offer it in a serverless form in the cloud, so people can just pay you go serve. We offer a dedicated form in the cloud, and then we offer it on prem, so we offer it all three ways.”
- Build Consensus Through Enrollment
Perhaps the most transferable lesson from InfluxData’s playbook is their approach to change management. “If I have to tell somebody to do something, I’ve already lost,” Evan emphasizes. “So my view is I have to enroll people in whatever we’re doing, whatever big change, whatever pivot, whatever dynamic we’re doing.”
This philosophy shaped how they handled controversial decisions like moving features to their commercial offering. Instead of dictating changes, they focused on building understanding and buy-in across stakeholders.
The reality of building a successful open source business is messier than most founders expect. As Evan notes, “My philosophy after my three long stints as a CEO is if you can get 60-65% of the stuff you’re doing right, you’re going to have an amazing company.”
This pragmatic approach – focusing on developer experience, making tough monetization decisions early, offering flexible deployment options, and leading through enrollment rather than dictation – provides a blueprint for founders navigating similar challenges. In a world where perfect execution is often praised but rarely achieved, InfluxData’s journey suggests that resilience and adaptability might be more valuable than perfection.